As the Calgary Flames seek a scoring boost, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee are two of the top names on the gotta-get-more-from-that-guy list.
This is an encouraging start.
Frost potted a pair — including the sudden-death winner — and Farabee notched one of his own Sunday in Edmonton as those forward pals combined to lead the Flames to a 3-2 overtime victory in the northern half of a pre-season split-squad double-header against the Oilers. The road team prevailed in both contests, with the Flames falling 3-0 at the Saddledome.
Was Sunday’s showing at Rogers Place a sign of things to come from Frost and Farabee? The Flames, after ranking fourth-last in the NHL in goals-for last season, certainly hope so.
Offence was part of the appeal when they acquired both in a late-January swap from the Philadelphia Flyers, although the immediate returns were underwhelming.
In a combined 63 appearances in Calgary’s colours after the trade, they mustered three goals apiece. That’s simply not enough oomph from two dudes who typically skate in a Top 9 role and also log shifts on the power-play.
While Sunday’s tallies won’t count toward their official total, it’s still something for Frost and Farabee to feel good about as they aim to show they can do more sniping now that they’re feeling settled at the Saddledome.
Frost cashed his first of the evening on a spinning shot from the slot, picking the top shelf on Matt Tomkins’ blocker side. A few minutes later, Farabee finished off a beautiful cross-seam feed from Rory Kerins on the power-play.
In overtime, Dryden Hunt found Frost all alone in the left circle, and the 26-year-old centre made no mistake from there. Hunt had the primary assist on both of his markers.
In the visiting crease in Edmonton, Flames backup candidate Ivan Prosvetov was credited with 28 saves.
Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse scored from just inside the point, while minor-leaguer Matvey Petrov buried on a bank shot from below the goal line.
The Flames will continue their tune-up worth Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken hopefuls.